On November 7th, Mike and I drove to Lexington,Virginia to the Hermitage on the Bellfry at Broadview Ranch. It is a small cottage on the large (incredible!) property of the ranch. A former IJM board member owns it, and lets IJMers stay there for free. It's an amazing property, and has different solitude exercises such as a labyrinth, a prayer walk through a pine forest. Also, lots of hiking and lovely views in the foothills of the mountains. It was amazing!
We packed some food, and took the drive through the fall colors (the tail end of them, anyway). The drive itself was peaceful and lovely through the mountains. We even saw the southern end of the Shenandoah mountains. We arrived on Friday evening, and we were the only people staying on the property. No one was staying at the big house during the weekend. It was so great to have the whole property to ourselves, essentially. It was a great time to reconnect together and also have some solitude.
We quickly dropped off our stuff in the cottage when we arrived, and then took a walk around for a bit before it got dark. The evening light was very pretty.
We loved having fires on the porch. We had one on Friday and Saturday night, and had one on Saturday morning too, and ate breakfast by it.
On Saturday morning, we woke up and took a run. This is the view from our porch on Saturday.
On the run, we discovered some fox hunters. They were the only people we saw all weekend, and they went right through our "yard" after our run. It was a little startling, but really neat to watch, as we hadn't ever seen anything like it. The people who were hunting were really nice, and one stopped to talk to us for a couple minutes.
We spent almost the entire day hiking around the property. There was really no one on these hundreds of acres, and so we explored everywhere.
After we finished hiking and ate dinner, we watched the sunset on one of the hills behind the cottage.
On Sunday morning, I woke up a bit before Mike and walked outside a bit to catch some of the morning views. I really love morning in the mountains.
On Sunday morning, we parted ways and had some solitude time after breakfast. We each wandered the grounds a bit.
After we packed up and cleaned up a bit, we drove back and stopped about halfway back at the North Mountain winery. It was a totally different feel from the other VA wineries we've been to, which were mainly in Loudoun County. Beautiful property in the valley between two mountain ranges. Great wine. Really interesting decorations inside. A little bit like a grandma's decorations.
It was a perfect day, so we bought some wine and sat outside and had a picnic in the beautiful scenery.
We packed some food, and took the drive through the fall colors (the tail end of them, anyway). The drive itself was peaceful and lovely through the mountains. We even saw the southern end of the Shenandoah mountains. We arrived on Friday evening, and we were the only people staying on the property. No one was staying at the big house during the weekend. It was so great to have the whole property to ourselves, essentially. It was a great time to reconnect together and also have some solitude.
The view from our cottage
Sunset
The screened in hammock porch
Once it got dark, we hung out and read inside the cottage each night. There were some books there, and we each brought some, too.
Breakfast on the porch after the run.
Chilling a little after the run and breakfast before we headed out for the day.
The "big house"
The trails were relatively well marked, but some of them were a little overgrown...
It was super hilly
The bench where we opened a bottle of wine and watched the sun set
Saw some deer that morning
The Hermitage
A picture together
I prayed through the labyrinth, a new experience for me, and quite a good one that still sticks with me.
I also took the barefoot path and prayed through it.
It was a really great day to end a practically perfect weekend.
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